Assessing Effectiveness of Adult Learning Programmes in Growth Sectors

20 Dr Hamid Razak asked the Minister for Education whether the Ministry will provide greater granularity in reporting employment outcomes of adult learning programmes such as the SkillsFuture Career Transition and Work-Study Programmes including the provision of sectoral breakdowns in growth areas like artificial intelligence, healthcare and social services, so as to assess the effectiveness of these programmes more clearly.

The Senior Minister of State for Education (Dr Janil Puthucheary) (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, the Ministry of Education (MOE) and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) adopt a variety of quality and outcome metrics to assess the effectiveness of SkillsFuture-funded continuing education and training (CET) programmes.

Employment outcomes, including wage changes and placement rates provide a quantitative measure on the impact of learning, including the industry relevance of skills training. Today, we track and report employment outcomes via administrative data, programme-specific surveys and econometric studies. For example, as of December 2024, about 55% of almost 4,300 trainees who were unemployed at the start of the SkillsFuture Career Transition Programmes found new jobs within six months of course completion.

Last year, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) published findings from its Work-Study econometric study, showing that Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and polytechnic graduates who upgraded via Work-Study Programmes enjoyed wage premiums of around 6% to 11%, compared to those who transited straight into employment. Every year, the polytechnics and ITE also administer the Work-Study Programme Outcomes Survey to work-study graduates. The findings are generally positive, with more than 90% of trainees employed and enjoying higher median salaries, compared to at the start of the training.

We will review the Member's suggestion on how better to report employment outcomes to guide individuals' training decisions. Where the studies are conclusive, such as the MTI's econometric studies, we have published them. A more granular breakdown by sector is not always possible due to sample size limitations. Some programmes also equip learners with horizontal skills, such as data analytics and artificial intelligence-related skills, that can be applied to job roles across multiple sectors.

Further, wage and employment outcomes do not tell us the full picture. For example, reskilling could have helped workers, who are at risk of displacement, keep their jobs, or take on new job roles in a growth sector, albeit with an initial pay cut. Some workers might also learn new skills in anticipation of new or upcoming requirements, for example, an automotive mechanic learning how to maintain electric vehicles. In such cases, wage effects may be hard to quantify. Therefore, MOE and SSG take a broader view of the impact of the SkillsFuture movement.

To complement the employment outcomes reporting, SSG administers the Training Quality and Outcomes Measure (TRAQOM) survey to learners who take up SSG-funded programmes to rate the programme quality and perceived outcomes. This includes whether the training has helped them to be more effective at their jobs, improve their work performance or allow them to take on enhanced responsibilities at work. The TRAQOM ratings of each course are published on MySkillsFuture portal and guide learners on suitable training programmes.

Other than employment outcomes, SSG also studies job posting data to monitor how job roles and skills needs of the labour market are evolving. Such jobs-skills insights are published regularly to inform the training market. For example, SSG's annual Skills Demand for the Future Economy report highlights changes to the in-demand skills in the digital, care and green economies. SSG also makes available jobs-skills tools and resources under the Jobs-Skills Portal to help companies and training providers focus on building up relevant skills for their workers and trainees.

Mr Speaker: Dr Hamid Razak.

Dr Hamid Razak (West Coast-Jurong West): Speaker, I thank the Senior Minister of State for the detailed reply. I am coming from an angle of providing information in terms of sectors so that both learners and employers can then know which sectors actually provide better career transitions. So, I am wondering if the Ministry will be able to look at, perhaps, for the sectors that have higher sample sizes, what the outcomes are, in terms of the current matrices that the Ministry is already tracking and publishing.

Dr Janil Puthucheary: Mr Speaker, I thank Dr Hamid Razak for the suggestion. Indeed, we will continue to study the variety of means through which we can help the learners, the employers and also the training providers make the correct choices, in terms of the courses that the learners select to go on, creating opportunities, the opportunities created by employers, and the training providers that need to then develop capacity in order to then provide the training for the learners. So, we do need to make this information available.

As I have explained, the outcomes are not so simple because some of them are distant in the future, some of them are stackable on top of each other. But we have to track all of these and think through how we can best provide the information; and how we can then guide the learners and the workers as well as the employers and the training providers, in order to think of the future capacity and the future opportunity.

It is not so straightforward. As I have explained, we have to think about wage outcomes and job placements but also job roles. And some of it is also a consideration of then what would have happened, the counterfactual, the worker who was not displaced but stayed in the job role or transited to another domain and potentially took a pay cut, but that was the counterfactual to losing the job entirely.

So, we have to think through how we present the data in a way that informs learners, employers and training providers in helping them make decisions about SkillsFuture's future.

1.00 pm

Mr Speaker: I was trying to squeeze in one more Parliamentary Question (PQ), but time is up.

As Members would have noticed, I have generally confined supplementary questions only to Members who have filed PQs. I do make exceptions from time to time. But I am doing this in the interest of trying to clear as many PQs as possible. Today, we barely cleared 20 PQs. So, I ask for Members' indulgence and understanding.

Order. End of Question Time. Introduction of Government Bill. Minister for Law.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), provided that Members had not asked for questions standing in their names to be postponed to a later Sitting day or withdrawn, written answers to questions not reached by the end of Question Time are reproduced in the Appendix.]